3.2Preferences

The preferences dialog consists of several panels.

3.2.1Font

This panel controls the main font used by DrRacket.

3.2.2Colors

The Colors panel has several sub-panels that let you
configure the colors that DrRacket uses for the editor background, for
highlighting matching parentheses, for the syntax coloring for Racket
and Java modes, for Check Syntax, and for the colors of the
text in the interactions window.

It also has two buttons, White on Black and Black
on White, which set a number of defaults for the color preferences and
change a few other aspects of DrRacket’s behavior to make DrRacket’s
colors look nicer for those two modes.

3.2.3Editing

The Editing panel consists of several sub-panels:

Indenting

This panel controls which keywords DrRacket recognizes for
indenting, and how each keyword is treated.

Square bracket

This panel controls which keywords DrRacket uses to determine when
to rewrite [ to (. For cond-like
keywords, the number in parenthesis indicates how many
sub-expressions are skipped before square brackets are started.

Enable keybindings in menus — If checked, some
DrRacket menu items have keybindings. Otherwise, no menu
items have key bindings. This preference is designed for
people who are comfortable editing in Emacs and find the
standard menu keybindings interfere with the Emacs
keybindings.

Treat command key as meta — If checked,
DrRacket will use the command key for some Emacs-like
keybindings, instead of using it for menu shortcuts. This
option is only available on Mac OS X.

Search using anchors — If checked, DrRacket’s
searching mode will jump directly to the first search hit,
using an “anchor” to determine where to search if the
search string changes.

Normalize pasted strings — If checked, DrRacket
adjusts strings that are pasted into the editor to avoid
confusion. For example, non-breaking spaces look just like
spaces but are not considered separators like ordinary
spaces are. If this is checked DrRacket will automatically
turn those non-breaking spaces into regular spaces.
Similarly with other (less common) characters.

Add one pixel of extra space between lines —
If checked, then an extra pixel of whitespace is added
between lines in the editor. The default value is platform-specific;
some fonts (notably those with ╔══╗ characters) only look right with
this unchecked.

Always use the platform-specific linefeed convention —
If checked, DrRacket always saves files with CRLF line terminators.
If unchecked, DrRacket looks at each file as it is opened and if every
line is terminated with CRLF (and there is at least one line),
then it saves the file with CRLF terminators
and otherwise it is saved with LF terminators (following the
Mac OS X and Linux convention). When a file is going to be saved
with CRLF terminators, then the status line at the bottom of the
DrRacket window shows “CRLF”.

This option is only available under Windows. On other operating
systems, all files are always saved with LF line terminators.

Maximum character width guide — If checked, DrRacket
draws a vertical line in files that exceed the given maximum
width. The vertical line shows where the given maximum width is.

Show line numbers — If checked, DrRacket shows
line numbers for the file being edited in the left-hand
column

Show definitions/interactions labels — If checked,
then the teaching languages show big friendly labels indicating
which window is the definitions window and which is the interactions
window.]

Racket

Highlight between matching parens — If checked,
the editor marks the region between matching parenthesis
with a gray background (in color) or a stipple pattern (in
monochrome) when the blinking caret is next to a
parenthesis.

Automatically adjust closing parens — If
checked, the editor automatically converts a typed
) to ] to match [, or it
converts a typed ] to ) to match
(.

3.2.4Warnings

Ask before changing save format — If checked,
DrRacket consults the user before saving a file in non-text format
(see Program Files).

Verify exit — If checked, DrRacket consults the
user before exiting.

Ask about normalizing strings — If checked, DrRacket
consults the user before normalizing a string pasted into the
editor.

Only warn once when executions and interactions are not
synchronized — If checked, DrRacket warns the user on the first
interaction after the definitions window, language, or teachpack
is changed without a corresponding click on Run.
Otherwise, the warning appears on every interaction.

Ask about clearing test coverage — If checked, when
test coverage annotations are displayed DrRacket prompts about
removing them. This setting only applies to the PLT languages.
DrRacket never asks in the teaching languages.

Check for newer Racket versions — If checked,
DrRacket periodically polls a server to determine whether a newer
version of DrRacket is available.

3.2.5General

Number of recent items — controls the length of the
Open Recent menu (in the File menu).

Auto-save files — If checked, the editor generates
autosave files (see Backup and Autosave Files) for files
that have not been saved after five minutes.

Backup files — If checked, when saving a file for the
first time in each editing session, the original copy of the file
is copied to a backup file in the same directory. The backup
files have the same name as the original, except that they end in
either ".bak" or "~".

Show status-line — If checked, DrRacket shows a
status line at the bottom of each window.

Count column numbers from one — If checked, the
status line’s column counter counts from one. Otherwise, it
counts from zero.

Display line numbers in buffer; not character offsets
— If checked, the status line shows a
‹line›:‹column› display for the current selection
rather than the character offset into the text.

Automatically print to PostScript file — If checked,
printing will automatically save PostScript files. If not,
printing will use the standard printing mechanisms for your
computer.

Open files in separate tabs (not separate windows) —
If checked, DrRacket will use tabs in the front-most window to
open new files, rather than creating new windows for new files.

Automatically open interactions window when running a
program — If checked, DrRacket shows the interactions window
(if it is hidden) when a program is run.

Automatically switch to the module language when opening
a module — If checked, DrRacket will recognize files that have
a #lang line and adjust the language setting automatically.

Put the interactions window beside the definitions
window — If checked, DrRacket puts the interactions window to
the right of the definitions window. By default, the interactions
window is below the definitions window.

Always show the #lang line in the Module language —
If checked, the module language always shows the #lang line
(even when it would ordinarily be scrolled off of the page),
assuming that the #lang line is the first line in the file.

3.2.6Profiling

This preference panel configures the profiling report. The band of
color shows the range of colors that profiled functions take on. Colors
near the right are used for code that is not invoked often and colors on
the right are used for code that is invoked often.

If you are interested in more detail at the low end, choose the
Square root check box. If you are interested in more detail
at the upper end, choose the Square check box.

3.2.7Browser

This preferences panel allows you to configure your HTTP proxy. Contact
your system administrator for details.

3.2.8Tools

This preference panel allows you to configure the currently active
plugins.